He piloted human innovation at the cutting edge and was rewarded with the wonder of seeing four sunsets in a day.

“I suppose the one quality in an astronaut more powerful than any other is curiosity. They have to get some place nobody’s ever been.”- John Glenn

If you want to innovate, go where someone else has never been. Make the trail. Make your way. Explore. Prototype. Test. Don’t just dip your toe into the water. Dive into the waves.

“We used to joke about canned men, putting people in a can and seeing how far you can send them and bring them back. That’s not the purpose of this program… Space is a laboratory, and we go into it to work and learn the new.” – John Glenn

Be part of the experience. Empathize. Understand. The New begets The New.

“To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.” – John Glenn

Multiple possibilities exist. Don’t try and predict it. In the certain-ness of uncertainty, Make the Future.

“Fear connotes something that interferes with what you’re doing.” – John Glenn

Fear blinds. Fear creates hesitation. The New is needed, now. The world needs you to be fearless.

“I’m not interested in my legacy. I made up a word: ‘live-acy.’ I’m more interested in living.” – John Glenn

And then it didn’t. The VP smiled and said, “I get the idea.” After getting through the embarrassment of the failure, the team learned what went wrong, and got to work testing variations of the failed component. The new versions didn’t fail, and the product went on to eventually make millions…

“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” – Warren Buffet

Risk and fear walk hand in hand with lack of knowledge. The best way then to minimize fear and minimize risk is to understand, to know what’s happening. Prototypes are part of that knowledge building process.

The knowledge base that takes shape through prototyping is equally, if not more, valuable than the actual mock-up itself.

The challenge in most organizations is to make the shift from being object/success based, to process/knowledge based. Then, even if a product never gets commercialized, the knowledge that gets created can be used for other products, other projects, and make those into money-makers. Knowledge creates a bolder approach to the future!

What do we do to make sure we’re after knowledge, not just results?

Whether you are creating products, services, or even a new business model, don’t think of prototyping as a ‘testing an idea’ event, but instead as a learning process. The best way to change into a process based mentality is to ask questions, and then create prototypes that will get you that knowledge. Three basic questions guide how you get that knowledge as efficiently as possible. Notice that nowhere are we asking,”Will this work?” Instead, ask yourself these questions and then start prototyping!

Which answers can I get to easily? Easy translates into fast answers. It doesn’t necessarily mean cheap, it just means that there are few moving parts, so to speak. The relationships are clear cut – there are anticipated outputs for each input. Subtract a dimension from your concept and test that. For example, if a knob has three dimensions but you want to see how easy it is to grab, cut it out of cardboard and build a two-dimensional model. Sketch when you can. Is there infrastructure in place, such as test equipment, that makes it easy to test something? Quick answers, that’s what you’re after. You might not be able to go to the moon with your prototype, but you might be able to get more confidence that it’s possible.

Which answers can I get cheaply? Low cost doesn’t mean quick or easy, though often it does. These prototypes also often aren’t highly accurate. But that shouldn’t matter. Can you build something out of polymer clay instead of 3D printing it, or molding it? Find ways to duplicate function using cheap materials or techniques.

Which answers will give the greatest bang-for-the-buck? Getting these may be neither cheap to test, nor fast to create, but, at the end of the day, they yield potential answers that could unlock future decisions. To find these, ask what part, system or sub-system, if you eliminated it from the design, would cripple it hopelessly? What is key? The movie “Victor Frankenstein” is playing in the background as I type this. The electrical charging system is key to energizing Frankenstein’s creations as none of his creations are possible without electricity. Those electrical systems are his bang-for-the-buck systems. Those are the types of things you want to prototype!

With each of these three types of prototypes, make sure that you have back-up plans. Make extra parts. Make variations. Confirm that you understand why things are happening the way they are.

When do I prototype the final product?

Even though it’s often tied to ‘go/no-go’ decisions about a product, prototyping the final version is part of the prototyping process spectrum. It’s still about knowledge creation, so if you’ve learned what you can about the systems in simple, cost effective methods, and you’ve learned about the ‘bang-for-the-buck’ systems, there shouldn’t be many surprises. Still, expect the best, and prepare for the worst. Have plans in place to deal with those surprises.

Document your learnings. Build upon what you know. Experiment to find out what you don’t know, and document it so it can be shared.

Follow this process and your prototypes won’t just be an artifact tested in a one-time event. They will be doorways to knowledge, and knowledge eliminates fear, allows you to deal with risk, and ultimately, leads to success.

Poll after poll showed that Clinton would be the next president of the United States. They also showed that even though Trump supporters said that they would vote for him, they still expected him to lose – they expected a Clinton victory.

Poll after poll were wrong.

What happened? Why the misleading numbers? How do I make sure that I don’t make the same mistakes and misread the signs when designing and launching products?

Launching a successful product can seem like a crap-shoot. You roll dice and hope for the best. In the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning presidential victory, there are four lessons that those designing product/service launches would be wise to heed. Let’s take a look.

People don’t want to feel like outsiders – they want to be in the ‘in’ crowd

People don’t like Donald Trump. It was obvious. Even people in his own party were against him. Heck, when is was clear that Trump had won, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow wasn’t even subtle in her dislike of the President Elect. With this type of negative environment being prevalent, people who were pro-Trump didn’t want to be seen as supporting someone who was so hated. The result?

They either lied and said they were voting for Hillary, or claimed they were undecided.

The lesson here, is that people need to feel welcomed and accepted if you’re going to get the truth out of them. If you’re designing a product and the users don’t trust you, or think that somehow their participation in a research study will impact them negatively, odds are you won’t get the truth. Build trust and give people a safe zone to say what they want. But be careful, this is only part of the story.

People tell you what you want to hear

History is replete with products that tested well in focus groups and then failed miserably when launched. One of the main reasons for this is that people will tell you what you want to hear. Or, they simply don’t know what they want so they pick whatever it is you’re showing them and they say they like it. Focus Groups can be funny things. Are people really telling you what they think, or are they telling you what they think you think they think?

So be open to reality

Some years back I was working on a project that was a ‘next generation’ version of a medical product I had designed the first generation of. Only two years had passed, and while the market, and the medical procedure the product served, hadn’t changed appreciably, I made sure that I wouldn’t be the only one doing research. I called in additional researchers/designers to watch the procedure and asked for their feedback. I was afraid that I was only going to see what I wanted to see and end up with a slanted, if not erroneous, perspective on what the doctors were doing.

In this election, pollsters anticipated reality. Pollster John Zoghby believed that polls were too heavily slanted Democrat. This lead to over-estimation of a Hillary Clinton lead, if it was even there at all! You’ll never see reality if you think you already know how reality behaves. We see what we want to see. We may not be malicious about it, but sub-consciously we think we know what’s really going to happen, so we set up our research to prove that true.

In the world of product/service design research, we need to find out what’s going on, not prove we’re right. The stakes are too high. Companies, organizations, communities are investing in a product that is supposed to pay them back in some way. Not understanding the situation is the first step to catastrophic failure of a product launch.

So at the end of the day, do what people do, not what they say

Yes, you can be the first to predict reality, but often the better route is to let things play out a little more and then jump in the game with a passionate verve! This has the advantage of getting actual data, actual feedback. This information is much more actionable and since everyone else is wrong, being a little late to the game won’t be a negative, it’ll be a huge positive!

If you believe that you need to predict reality and launch at a specific time and place, then don’t pick one horse in a race. Place multiple bets. Have a Plan B, and Plan C…Plan(x). Then, as reality starts revealing itself, roll the appropriate plan into action with modifications as needed. Incidentally, the first generation product spoken about in the beginning of this article was just such a multi-plan launch.. That enabled it to launch with the right components at the right time, even though the very beginning was touch and go understanding what was truly essential to the offering and what wasn’t. In the end, we got it right.

That’s ultimately what it’s all about – getting it right.

One way we can get it right is to learn from what others have done wrong.

So regardless of whether you’re crushed or elated with this election (or perhaps even feeling a little of both!) pay attention to these four tips based on what was done wrong, and your next product launch won’t unexpectedly fail – you will get it right!

I love it when folks share their insights into innovation, especially when they share as prolifically as the folks over at Autodesk do.

If you, like I have, have checked out the new products in Autodesk Labs, you probably wonder how they are able to create really cool product after cool product. The reason is simple: it’s because they don’t innovate in a chaotic manner. They have a process that guides and informs their product development efforts: the Autodesk Innovation Genome.

This Innovation method is the result of 10+ years of analyzing over 350 innovations from the history of the world (their goal is to examine 1000!). The wisdom from these innovations is then distilled and codified to enable them use the insights repeatably. (This is very similar to how the TRIZ problem solving methodology was developed)

How Does It Work?

The process is essentially five steps.

Steps One and Two establish Context and Direction.

Step Three is at the heart of this process – the Seven Questions.

(While there are 7 buckets here, I find them a little too abstract on their own. They do have a 49 question chart – shown below – that is much more useful in my opinion.)

(The above chart includes questions from other idea prompting methods like SCAMPER. )

Of course, ideas don’t mean anything without a method to commercialize, so steps four and five are about prioritizing and executing.

I could go into this even more, but really, just head over to the Innovation Genome and check it out for yourself. There are multiple excellent resources there. Study, learn, modify/apply, share.

For the first 5000 years of its existence, beer was hopless (and some may say ‘hopeless’ as well!😉 ). In order to add flavor and balance to beer and impart preservative qualities, various herbs and spices were added to the fermented joy.

And then, some time in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, monks began experimenting with green cones of a towering bine: hops. The rest as they say, is history – or rather – the present. Hopped beers of all sorts are ubiquitous in the world of brewing; so much so, that some view hops as overpowering the nuanced complexities of beer instead of playing a complementary role.

Love ’em, hate ’em, or grow ’em (I’m in all those camps by the way😉 ) hops are relative newcomers to the world of brewing. They were, at the time of their introduction, an innovation. A bold innovation in fact.

Think of it, or rather, look around. What product in your room has been relatively unchanged for hundreds of years? Now, think of a way to tweak it in a way that the whole world will make that tweak the norm. Socks? Walls? Tables? Nails? Glass? Water? Air?

Just because we use something everyday doesn’t mean it’s the best it can be. Perhaps, the best is yet to come!

I came across this interesting article over at FastCompany. The title of the article is “You’re Probably Not Brainstorming Long Enough.” The short of it is that just when things get tough, and the ideas start drying up, that’s the time when the great ideas are just around the corner. Just go longer, do a “Brain marathon.”

I definitely agree that often the great ideas start coming after the obvious ideas are exhausted. Heck, my last post was about this very topic.🙂 However, the problem with the marathon concept is that it’s unnecessary. I’ve said it before:

Brainstorming should be a process, not an event.

Give yourself, and others, time to plan and ideate.

Your brain, >YOU< need to take time to understand the problem, process it, think of alternatives, sketch, prototype, play. There’s no need to force it to occur in the span of an 8 hour day.

Instead of pushing everyone into a room for a half day or more, spend some time setting up the actual ‘event’. Give people the problem statement. Prime the pump, get people thinking about the problem and possible solutions on their own or in small groups of two. (If you want a copy of the template I use for initiating and planning a brainstorm, click here and send me a message🙂 ) Then, and only then, after everyone has had a chance to ruminate, then have the actual session.

It seems to me then that the purpose of cerebration sessions is not to think up new ideas but to educate the participants in facts and fact-combinations, in theories and vagrant thoughts.

No two people exactly duplicate each other’s mental stores of items. One person may know A and not B, another may know B and not A, and either knowing A and B, both may get the idea—though not necessarily at once or even soon.

Furthermore, the information may not only be of individual items A and B, but even of combinations such as A-B, which in themselves are not significant. However, if one person mentions the unusual combination of A-B and another the unusual combination A-C, it may well be that the combination A-B-C, which neither has thought of separately, may yield an answer.

In other words, the focus of the actual session is to cross-pollinate, to share ideas, to create new combinations from existing ideas. What I’ve also noticed is that brand new ideas also surface during this time.

But perhaps most important, when people think in little portions well in advance of an ideation session, they don’t have to drink from a marathon fire-hose. Instead of a full day event, 2-4 hours is sufficient. No one gets worn out and the quality of the ideation session is much better.

After this shorter session, combine all the ideas, redistribute them to all the team and let them make even more new connections.

After that, then pick the ideas that are worth moving forward on and prototype some more.

When all is said and done, there’s no reason for a single, exhausting marathon session (remember, legend has it the first marathon runner died after delivering news of a military victory!).

Put some planning into the process and not only will you save frustration getting great ideas, you save time.

Name at least 10 ways to use a brick. Take a couple minutes and write them down. If you don’t get 10, that’s ok.

Here’s a list I quickly made up.

paperweight

window breaker

block for building a wall

Weight for muscle training

shoes for a low gravity planet

Sundial (if stood on end)

Writing Utensil on a rough surface

Toy Boat for a sea of mercury

Temperature regulator (Hot Pack/Cold Pack – Freeze the brick to keep things cold or heat it up and drop it in a container to keep it warm)

Electrical Insulator (Use for a capacitor or transformer)

Thermal Insulator -keep Hot from Cold

Serving Tray in Kitchen

Odds are, the first few ideas on your list are the same as mine. You also probably had a tough time getting past the first four or five, right? That’s actually totally normal. The first ideas are the ones that everyone has. The next ones are the ones that are the money-makers, the ideas others didn’t think of. But getting that next batch of ideas is hard work. It takes time and effort.

So, how do you get past the first few ‘meh’ ideas and get to the good ones?

Before we look at that, let’s look at what we do to get the first 4 or 5.

In our Mind’s Eye, we hold the brick in our hand, looking at it from 2 to 3 feet away, simultaneously thinking how this is good building material. In other words what we do is, (a) focus on one main trait/attribute and let that guide our ideation process. In the case of a brick we focus on the weight and/or hardness. We also put the brick where we typically see it. We (b) see it in a specific context: in this case, the construction realm. Thirdly, we (c) look at the wholeness of the object – in this case the brick as a rectangular block of material.

The way to get better ideas is to vary each one of the above three perspectives: A.C.E. – (Attributes,Context,Everything (not the Whole thing))

Doing this will break through the ‘meh’ stage and give you much more creative ideas.

(a) Look at various Attributes

So, what are the attributes of a brick, or any object for that matter (I realize there is some overlap between these but sometimes it helps to call the attributes different things)?

Shape

Size/Dimensions

Roughness/Smoothness

Hardness/Softness

Color/Reflectivity/Optical Properties

Smell

Taste

Density

Sharpness

Mechanical Properties (will it behave differently when we push on it, pull on it or shear it)

Fracture Properties (How it breaks)

Thermal properties

Fire Resistance

Electrical Properties

Magnetic Properties

Acoustic Properties

Porosity

Chemical Properties

Emotions it elicits

All of the above at various scales – from macro to micro. Bricks aren’t perfectly homogeneous. Different parts of a brick can behave differently.

Look at the various attributes and ideate around those – individually or in aggregate. Truly observe! Understand what goes into the product. Once you understand the brick your eyes will be opened to ways you can modify and leverage what the brick is.

What’s the shape of the brick? Is the brick REALLY hard, or does it has softness to it? What does it take to deform the brick and mar the surface? Bricks can hold and/or prevent temperature transfer depending on the context. They also don’t conduct electricity all that well. Do they change color under certain circumstances? Do they change their smell under certain stresses? Do bricks fracture at certain loads so that they can be used as indicators? What do they taste like? (You lick a brick at your own risk.😉 )

(b) Look at alternate Contexts

Put the brick into various contexts and you’ll be surprised how quickly the ideas start flowing. Is it a yard, a different planet, an imaginary place, a street, a kitchen, an operating room? Are these contexts cold, hot, well lit, dimly lit, windy, calm, etc.? All these variables will impact the types of ideas you come up with.

For example, I put it the brick in a kitchen and hence came up with using it as a serving tray and/or thermal stabilizer. (Also, bricks can exhibit efflorescence. Salts can come to the surface, so this can flavor food – provided the rest of the materials in the brick aren’t poisonous😉 ) When I thought of it in a street, I thought of rubbing it on the street to make drawings. In an operating room I thought of it being heated up and placed under the surgical drapes to keep patients warm. (I came up with another idea but I’ll include it below.)

(c) Look at Everything (not the whole thing)

Finally, what can we change – modify, add, subtract, etc. from any of the above attributes, components, systems or sub-systems to make it useful? (Place these in various contexts to multiply the power of this exercise.) Look beyond it simply being a block held at arms length. Re-imagine it!

Can we change its usefulness by breaking it up? (I often take brick chunks, break them more and use the fragments to line the bottom of planters. Broken shards of brick can also be amazingly sharp!)

We could also grind it up and add it to food to change the way it’s cooked and digested. (Depending on the chemical composition of the brick this might not be a safe idea so don’t try this at home/work/etc.!) Revisiting the operating room context, we could grind up the brick and weave it into the material of the surgical drapes to make the drapes more effective insulators.

The whole purpose of using A.C.E. is to get us past the obvious and into the realm of innovation. Just using one of these will help, but when you use all three in conjunction, your ideas will flow and be more original.

There’s no question that we are living in exciting times. There are multiple trends, technological and otherwise, that are blossoming and can be leveraged if you take the time to put in some work. Follow this simple three step process and you’ll be much better equipped for leveraging the power of trends in your business.

Step One:

Research and understand trends that are shaping the landscape.

As a primer, here’s a quick list of some trends that are shaping the world right now.

Negative Attributes: Needs to be on hand to use; Must do additional work to digitally archive; Uses/wastes paper; If recycled then must be copied; Have to purchase at stores either in bulk or as needed but then have to run to the store; ???

Ideas:

Have a QR code 10 pages from the end of the notebook that automatically orders (when scanned) more notebooks before running out (Better than a subscription service because it’s on-demand) This data can be used to then understand ordering patterns.

Personalize notebooks with a chamber that contains a friend/family member’s DNA from a kiss (think lipstick on an envelope…remember snail mail?😉 )

Create Notebooks from pulp made from trees or branches that grew on property that held emotional import

Grow bamboo (at home?) or more likely, you pay an amount to lease a portion of a bamboo field from which pulp is harvested to create your own notebooks. It’s a notebook/paper co-op (I LOVE this idea. Anyone that wants to do it, please contact me🙂 )

As you can see, just by bouncing notebook attributes against the various trends, I came up with 16 ideas for new products. (Not only does this process supplement existing product lines, but you can use it to create brand new markets. Just start with some existing product line attributes, bounce it against trends and create new products irrespective of what your industry is!)

There’s no excuse for being left in the dust of technology and an evolving world. Follow this simple 3 step process, and you’ll find yourself successfully creating products as the world changes.🙂

It’s a great tool that enables each of us to look at problems, understand how they got there, how to fix them, and what the impact of those fixes can be. It helps us survive***. Our imaginations allow us to time travel to the past and the future. We experience images and feelings that allow us to live that which has, hasn’t, will, and/or won’t happen.

But there’s a problem.

The more adept we get at using our imaginations, our imaginations can, very often start using us. Without disciplined self-awareness, time travel gets the better of us. We find ourselves lost in the past, turning situations over and over in our heads.

“Why didn’t I do that? I should’ve done this. Where was the support? …”

The questions can flow on and on in vivid color. We replay everything and embellish it – feeling every decision in the pit of our guts. It’s real. We’re in the past.

Then there’s the scenario planning that’s gone haywire. We travel from past to future without taking a stop in the Present.

We see, smell, hear, feel, every alternate time path. We see the failures; we see the success, but then something messes it up. Again with the self-talk:

“I should’ve done this. I can’t believe he said that. How dare….”

This type of negative time travel seems to impact us the most when we are anxious and under stress. Our brains and bodies don’t know the difference though. As a result we get more anxious, our blood pressure shoots up, heart rate speeds up. Left unchecked, our productivity goes down… Our bodies are living the reality of time travel in our minds.

The solution?

Become cognizant of the fact that you’re imagining the reality – not actually living it. In short, stop time traveling and come back to the Present. Say something out-loud to yourself, “This isn’t the reality. I’m anxious (angry, upset, impatient, etc.)”

Then it’s a matter of acknowledging something positive. Be thankful for something at that moment. In essence you are interrupting and re-writing the experience from being something that happened (or will happen) to an experience in the now with positive ramifications. (There’s a great series on healing emotional memories by Joseph M. Carver, Ph.D. . Check it out!)

Our imaginations are wonderful. They dynamize our innovation and creativity and enable us to design products and services that impact the world in positive ways. The ability to time travel is key to this. Just make sure you travel with yourself and make every journey into the past and future fruitful and pleasant.

We are more than the sum of our experiences – good and bad. Don’t get sidetracked by past and future memories of the bad.

🙂

*** – “Prehistoric men and women who worried a lot were more likely to survive than their carefree, positive-thinking peers. Thinking negatively served as an early warning system. It triggered the brain to recognize actual and potential threats in the moment, and it also aided the brain in imagining dangerous scenarios that didn’t exist. If people were prepared at all times, they were more apt to survive.” – from Curious. by Todd Kashdan, Ph.D. (Quoted here)

An engineer on an interview walked into a pristine R&D lab and quipped, “Does anyone do any work in here?”

Turns out, that when creating environments conducive to creative thinking and problem solving, messy environments are more liberating and more conducive to coming up with novel ideas. (Study in Psychological Science) It’s probably not a coincidence that in addition to Einstein, Steve Jobs, Mark Twain, and Alan Turing also had messy desks. (Great pics here)

Messy environments are safe spaces for creativity. Or perhaps it’s easier to think of it the other way. When you walk into a room that’s pristine and perfect, shiny and new, are you willing to be the first one to mess it up? Because of this, perfectly organized clean rooms have a tendency to perpetuate their cleanliness. The expectations are that you need to exercise control and follow social norms. There is a lack of freedom present which stifles the innovative spirit. There is a sense that “I’m in someone else’s area and I need to play by their rules.”

On the other hand, walking into a disorderly area impacts everyone that’s exposed to it. It doesn’t even need to be your mess! People will tend to feel more at ease, thus more free to contribute, to create, to be unconventional!

So, the important thing is, if you want innovation to happen in your lab, it might behoove you to let things go a little bit. Let certain areas become islands of creativity where people can play and invent, where they don’t have to play by the rules.

If you do organize, and you have more than one person that uses the lab, make sure that each person cleans his/her own messes. I’ve heard horror stories of overzealous colleagues unwittingly throwing away someone else’s valuable prototypes because they didn’t know what they were and they looked liked they didn’t have any value.

So, instead of cleaning parties, I suggest that you have innovation parties. Spend a couple hours together in the lab with everyone showing everyone else what they’re working on. Let people look at and touch stuff. Ask, “What does this do?”. Cross-fertilize!!

It’s also important to keep raw materials and tools within reach. If you have to go upstairs or downstairs each time you need some component, there’s a problem in your lab organization.

Likewise, keep reminders of your current product lines in reach. You have certain core competencies, certain products that define who you are. Creating innovations that leverage your core competencies can create products that are ‘in your wheelhouse’, and thus accelerate their time to market.

So, in summary, here are the rules to keeping your innovation lab fruitful:

Make sure there is a way for people to see what you’re working on. Don’t hide prototypes or ideas from others or yourself!

The only people allowed to clean work areas are those who are responsible for that work.

Keep raw materials and prototypes close at hand in cabinets, drawers, etc. If you have to walk more than 20 feet to get something, or be reminded of something, the plan needs to be changed.

If you have raw materials or prototypes that you must move, take pictures and post them.

Keep your current product lines in view. Learn about what your company does well.

Do you have any other rules that help make your innovation works-spaces more fruitful?

PS. Clean areas have their place. They do promote healthy eating, conventionality and charitable giving. So, make yourself a clean area for healthier, linear thinking, crank-through work. After all, sometimes you just need to get a report written and sent.

PPPS Messy is not the same as dirty. Working in a place with exposed mold, excessive dust, standing water, is not creating an environment that is healthy to function in. Stay away from these. (I hope you didn’t need me to tell you this😉 )

PPPPS Check out this link for some great environmental creativity hacks